Ocean Ridge Suing Over Sand Issue

January 7, 1986|By Rebecca Theim, Staff writer

OCEAN RIDGE — A lawsuit aimed at forcing Palm Beach County and the Department of Natural Resources to help save the town`s eroding beaches is progressing, Town Attorney Paul Nicoletti told commissioners on Monday.

Commissioners have contended that the town`s beaches are not receiving their fair share of sand from a sand transfer plant at the Boynton Inlet.

The plant is operated by the South Lake Worth Inlet District for Palm Beach County. It is designed to compensate areas south of the inlet for sand whose natural southerly flow is blocked by a jetty at the north side of the inlet.

Nicoletti told commissioners at their monthly meeting that the parties being sued have been served with their ``notice of violation,`` a document required by Florida statute before a person or organization can be sued. It must be sent 60 days before the suit is filed, Nicoletti said.

The notices were sent in the beginning of December, he added.

Plans for the court action began in July after the commission grew tired of waiting for the county, DNR or the inlet district to enforce the sand transfer plant permit. West Palm Beach attorney James Brindell was hired to handle the suit.

The battle for more sand dates back to 1967, when the jetty -- between the affluent communities of Ocean Ridge and Manalapan -- was extended eastward. The sand transfer plant is at the end of the jetty.

The jetty blocks sand flowing from north to south, commissioners contend, and the sand transfer plant is pumping only about one-half the amount that it should.